If I'm the brains of this operation
by MarenMary93
Summary: When a high priority mission calls for it, the guys at the Phoenix Foundation have to team up with another covert organization called LAB (Leauge of Agents and Bomb-technicians). Jack and Alex have to take care of the field-work on their own, because both Mac and Kim are held up with injuries. (Lots of potential for a whole bunch of hurt characters here)
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so it seemed like you guys liked my OC's in 'Carrying the Weight of the World on Your Shoulders' (phew, that's a long title) And at least one of you requested that I'd put them in more of my fics.**

 **Guess this is the first real attempt of a team-up between the Phoenix Foundation and LAB**

Alex cussed as his knee buckled. This was seriously bad timing. And he hadn't even done anything that would explain why it buckled just now. He hadn't jumped, he hadn't run, he hadn't landed poorly. He even had his weight centered over the damn leg. No reason for it to buckle…

"You good there, buddy?" Jack asked a little worried, he got a little more worried when he saw the 6'4'' tall brunet steadying his right leg.

"Yeah, just need to have a checkup on my knee…" Alex sighed, rubbing out the ache which was presenting itself. He was desperately hoping that this wasn't some sick foreshadowing of how the mission would go from this point on.

"Checkup?"

"Yeah, think I've torn my cruciate ligaments again…" Alex admitted as he straightened up and tested if his knee still worked correctly.

"Like, now?" Jack asked alarmed.

"No, a few weeks ago…" Alex said as he gradually put more weight on the leg, then took a few limping steps judging his ability to continue with the mission. "Okay, we're all good…"

"You sure?" Jack asked, scanning Alex's face for any real clues about the state of the younger man's injury.

"Yeah, Kim would probably just request that I'd 'grow a pair'… Trust me, not really anything to worry about…" Okay, his brother wouldn't do that. He would probably go all protective mode and demand to check his knee out right there on the spot. But Alex didn't want Jack to know that, and he certainly didn't want Jack to worry too much about him. He was good, he'd been on missions in worse conditions than this.

Jack wasn't convinced, but he nodded and continued walking. "How's Kim doing by the way?"

"As well as any dude who has recently taken a bullet through the shoulder can hope for, I guess…" Alex shrugged, "Sure would have been easier for him without the family curse…"

"Family curse?"

"ADHD, resting up is mild torture..."

"Amen to that…" Jack agreed, grinning.

"Wait, you have it too?"

"I'm a _35_ year old dude who punches people for a living. Is it so hard to believe?"

"Not as hard as trying to believe that you're 35…" Alex chuckled, "You should really up that to 40, much more believable."

"39, does that work?"

"Sure…" Alex rolled his eyes, "When you're done with your midlife crisis, do you think we can get going and actually stop this dictator?"

"Oh, sorry… I was only stopping because your wear and tear were bothering ya… Sure you're not a 60 year old in a young-suit?" Jack shot back with a smile.

"Nice one, gramps… Nice one…" the 24 year old nodded. "Real clever…"

MACGYVERxLAB

MEANWHILE BACK AT HOME

"How are my two favorite guys doing?" Riley asked as she entered her living room, almost smirking at the sight of Mac and Kim. Both of them were looking a little helpless in their current state.

"Oh, good…" Kim answered, shrugging his right shoulder. "Just a little bit jealous of those two who actually got to go out in the field… But, I get to stay here with you two."

Mac smiled, and looked down at the boot holding the severely sprained ankle stable.

"It is a little weird knowing that your partner is out there on a mission without you…" Mac nodded along, "But they needed the best of the best available, so… Agency team-up…"

Kim nodded, "Would have been fun to be on this mission… Sounded like it was a set up for one of those real old time missions dad and his mates talks about from time to time…"

"Okay?"

"Yeah, you know… Real cowboy-up kinda missions, Alex would probably refer to John McClane or some stuff..."

"Oh crap, we've got two times Jack Dalton on a mission alone…" Riley realized.

That was enough for Mac to start laughing and for Kim to smirk.

"Honestly, I'd be more afraid of having two Alexander Coles together on a mission. Because that spells trouble…" Kim said tapping the knuckles of his right hand on his knee.

"I've never seen him in action, but the last camping trip I joined in on was wild…" Mac remembered.

"Trust me, that camping trip is nothing compared to how he gets on missions." Kim warned.

"Okay, so you're saying the fate of the free world is left to…?"

"To two hyperactive guys, one with the attention span of a five-year-old and the other with severe ability to get into trouble… Yup…" Kim nodded.

"And we're not quite sure which is which…" Mac groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Jack knows how to concentrate…" Riley frowned

"Yeah, Alex does too…" Kim shrugged his good shoulder again.

"But they both know how to get sidetracked too…" Mac offered.

"Exactly…" Kim agreed.

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"So… What's the plan now?" Alex asked as they stood outside the door where they expected the dictator and his security guys to be.

"Hey, don't look at me man…"

"You're the oldest, I figured you were the leader of this mission. Well, that and because that scary little boss-lady of yours put your name on the top of the mission plan."

"Well, I relied on you being the planner. After all, you and your brother share that task on your missions right?"

"Nah, Kim does the real planning. I do the 'hope-this-works-and-we-don't-die' planning…"

"Oh, but hey… I haven't really been on the planning side of missions since Kabul, and that's ten years ago, easy!" Jack whispered back, urgency in his tone.

"Well, if I'm the brains of this operation, we're in some deep shit…"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm not a fan of this, but what do you say the plan is to just wing it?"

"Best plan so far…" Alex shrugged, "Might as well hope Lady Luck keeps us safe."

"Man I hate this…" Jack admitted, tightening his grip around his AK.

"I have to admit, I do find comfort in the illusion of having a plan…"

"Illusion?" Jack looked up with a puzzled frown.

"Even the best laid plans can go sideways…"

"And that's the story behind Cairo…"

"Cairo?"

"Tell you later, gonna need some alcohol before that wound gets ripped open…"

Alex nodded, "Mission gone bad?"

"Worst mission gone bad up until now…" Jack chuckled grimly. "So, are we just gonna kick down the door?"

"Guess so…" Alex grimaced, "Look, no offence, you're a great guy… But I really, really, PASSIONATELY HATE being on missions with anyone else than Kim…"

"Kid, I feel the exact same way…" Jack said, baring his teeth. "There's no routine when you're out with new fellas…"

Alex nodded, "You feel like we're both the same pole of a battery? That we're the negative one, and right now we should have Kim or Mac so that we would function?"

"Not in quite so many words, but yeah…" Jack looked at the door again, "Think it's best if we just go for it though… Either that, or this mission is going to fail by default…"

"May I get the honors of kicking down the door?"

"Thought your knee was hurt?"

"I usually kick with my left…"

"Okay, go for it!" Jack nodded, standing back to offer Alex some space.

 **Okay, so… Had to cut it short now. Hope you enjoyed!**

 **(Oh, and about the back and forth between A and J at the end here… Chalk it up to it being their first mission together, and without their 'better halves' [Not that Mac and Kim are better than Jack and Alex, but M and K are more brainy… J and A are the muscles…] And they really should have remembered that before they were smack in the middle of their mission.)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so you still like my boys? Nice to know…**

 **Hope you'll continue to like them.**

Jack had to give it to him, the kid's ability to kick down doors were no less than admirable. The two inch wooden door sprang open at the first kick, wood splintering near the lock.

He didn't get the chance to brag of Alex's neat kick, because inside the room there were seven armed guards. And they weren't too happy to see Jack and Alex.

Two of the guards charged at them, the other ones lifted their guns. Jack grabbed a hold of one of the guys hair, jerking his head down at the same time as he thrusted his knee upward crushing the guy's nose. Unfortunately, the guy didn't go down so easily and he kept fighting.

The guys who had raised their guns obviously waited for the other two to either win or get out of the way before they started shooting.

He tried sweeping his opponent's legs, but the guy just jumped over his attempt.

Jack yelped as the guy's knee connected with his ribcage, it set him a little off edge, but he recovered quickly enough to be able to duck the roundhouse kick aimed for his head.

MACGYVERxLAB

The man tried to kick him square in the chest, stupid move… But of course, the guy in a dress jacket couldn't know that on beforehand. Alex caught the man's foot and stretched his leg all the way above both of their heads. It didn't help the guy that Alex was a good six inches taller than him. Alex's actions caused the shorter man to jump up and down on the toes of his left foot.

Alex shifted the man's foot down to his shoulder, making it possible for him to hold him with only one arm. It was still very high for the other man to have his foot held. This left Alex's left hand free to do other things, like reaching for his gun and fire a few rounds into the men holding guns towards them, then he clonked his opponent at the temple with the butt of his handgun.

Just as the man sagged down in front of him, a weight crashed into him from his side.

He knew it before he hit the ground. He knew it just as the audible pop rang through the room, it sounded kinda like when a rubber band snaps. A rubber band about the thickness of a water hose. Everyone else in the room who was still alive and conscious snapped their heads towards the origin of the sound.

Jack was the first one to recover from the sickening sound, and used that to his advantage and knocked out the man who was trying to fight him, the one who had crashed into Alex.

"What was that?" Jack asked casting a worried glance at Alex, "Was that your ACL? PCL?"

Alex shook his head, his eyes focused on nothing in particular. "No, no… No, I tore those a little while ago… But something tore…"

"Does it hurt?"

"Hasn't registered yet…" Alex answered, still with a thousand yard stare.

The dictator shifting behind the desk fetched Jack's attention, and caused him to take action once again. Propelling himself towards the guy, Jack hooked an elbow around the man's torso causing them both to crash into the wall behind the dictator.

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Alex looked up as Jack stood back up with a groan. The older man was rubbing gently at his shoulder, wincing.

"You doing good?"

"Nah…" Jack answered, biting down on his teeth. "Knocked out my shoulder… You know how to set one?"

Alex nodded, "My brother is the master of dislocated shoulders… Come here…"

"How's the leg?"

"Certainly starting to tell me that something is wrong…" Alex grimaced, pressing his right hand down on top of his quadriceps. "How is the idiot behind the desk?"

"Out cold. Cuffed him too…"

Alex nodded, "Good…"

Jack grunted as he kneeled down beside Alex, his shoulder giving him more than a little trouble. Jack looked towards the younger man's right knee. It was hard to tell how bad it hurt by the younger man's expression, but the odd angle the joint took gave Jack some indication of how serious the injury probably was.

"Let me do a little quick fix of that shoulder of yours…" Alex said getting ready to grab a hold of Jack's weird angled arm, "Cause I might need to use you as a crutch on my way outta here…"

"You also need me to make some kind of splint for your knee. Knees are not meant to bend that way…"

"Don't you think I know that?" Alex shot back with a grimace.

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"So… Who do you think will screw up the case first? Your guy or my twin?"

"You really don't have much faith in that brother of yours?" Riley asked sitting down next to Kim.

"Oh, I have faith in him…" Kim clarified, "But I know of Murphy's law… And I'm quite sure Alex is Murphy's law's favorite victim…"

"He is?"

"Yup." Kim leaned back and folded his hands at the right side of his chest. "Plus, he could probably pick a fight in an empty desert."

"And how about you?" Riley asked, her foot nudging Kim's leg, Mac rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I've got a little bit of wild blood in me too…" Kim winked back, "But unlike Alex, I enjoy using my brain cells for a little more than planning my next move in a hand to hand…"

"What do you like to do?" Riley pushed, inching closer.

Mac had to avert his eyes, he had a crush going on Riley… But he hadn't been able to put it across to her, and now she was starting to flirt with one of his buddies. It felt like a punch in the gut. The jewelry 'tree' standing in Riley's bookcase was interesting enough to hang his eyes on for a while.

"I'm more into the tactical aspect. Planning, finding ways to infiltrate…" Kim answered, bobbing his eyes side to side, "But I have to admit, I enjoy a good fight as much as the next guy. I've been practicing BJJ since I was seven or so…"

"Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Nice…" Riley smiled.

"Do you do BJJ?"

Riley shook her head and blushed ever so slightly, "No, but I've seen it being practiced…"

"Let me guess, you liked watching it?"

"More like I liked when the two guys practicing it decided it was too hot for t-shirts…"

Mac had never before hoped for someone to shoot him, but right now. He probably would have thanked whoever did it.

"Well, I'd invite you to some of our practices, but I'm out for a couple of months… Doctor's orders…" Kim said angling his head so he could look Riley up and down beside him.

"Raincheck?"

"If you want one, it's yours…"

"I'd really like that…" Riley smiled back, moving her leg just a little, enough for her and Kim's knees to touch.

MACGYVERxLAB

Alex pulled Jack's shoulder back into the spot where it was supposed to be, and instinctively ducked as the ball of the humerus slammed into the socket.

The way both men were left groaning and cussing would have left most truckers blushing.

"Why'd you duck?" Jack gasped stabilizing his left shoulder with his right arm. Then he let out another growl.

Alex grimaced, his hands reaching for his mangled knee. "Kim… Kim usually lashes out during extreme pain… Best not to be within striking distance…"

"Fair enough…" Jack offered a quick smile to Alex, and nodded towards his leg. "I'll find something to stabilize that thing…"

 **Yeah… So…  
Hope you're enjoying yourselves(, and my story…)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so… Thank y'all so much for the comments! Sure means a lot to me!**

"How is it feeling?"

Alex glared back up at him as if to say 'my knee is a hot mess right now, how do you think it feels?'.

"Okay, okay…" Jack nodded as he placed two now padded chair legs on either side of Alex's leg. "I kinda need your opinion here, should I try to straighten it? Or should I just secure it the way it is now?"

Alex propped himself up on his elbows, giving himself the chance to get a better look at the leg.

"How loose is it?" Alex finally asked, pointing a finger towards his knee.

"You want me to check?" Jack asked placing his hands a few inches away from Alex's leg.

Alex nodded, "Go ahead… If there's no resistance at all, we might as well set it straight, if it feels like it's tugging at something, I think we better keep it at that odd angle…."

Jack placed one hand under Alex's ankle and one under his calf, then he carefully lifted the leg. He tried to ignore it when Alex stifled a scream as the joint acted like Jell-O, tried to ignore it because it hurt deep down in his soul.

Jack swallowed hard before he gave Alex his opinion on the state of the leg. "I don't think… I think…"

"There is nothing left keeping the knee stable." Alex croaked out, squeezing his eyes shut. "We should really take a look at it…"

Jack nodded and provided a knife from his belt, then he cut open the fabric hiding Alexander's knee.

"Ummm… That doesn't look healthy…" Jack commented as he took in the sight of the younger man's knee.

"I could have told you that without even looking at it…" Alex said, fighting off tears.

"Yeah, but… What I mean is, umm… Your kneecap is vacationing somewhere further north…"

"Crap…"

"Crap, indeed…" Jack agreed. "Well, at least your leg is a lot straighter now…"

"Great." Alex muttered, without any enthusiasm.

Jack nodded and started wrapping Alex's leg and the legs of the chair with strips of sports-tape.

"Sorry, buddy…" Jack mumbled as Alex sounded his discomfort, "I'm so sorry, bud…"

MACGYVERxLAB

"What's up with you?" Riley asked as she stepped into her kitchen. Mac was standing by the sink, forcefully cleaning his coffee-mug.

"Nothing…" Mac answered, attempting to keep his tone light and cheery.

"Oh, cause it seems to me like you're avoiding us…"

"I'm not…" Mac almost bit back.

"And you seem a bit grumpy…"

"My ankle is acting up, sue me…"

"Mac, I know you well enough to know that this is all about something far different than your ankle…"

Mac sat the mug down hard on the counter, and turned around on his good heel.

"Then what?!"

Riley's expression softened, and she stepped closer.

"Do you like me?"

"Of course I like you, what are you talking about?"

"No, I mean… Do you LIKE ME, like me?"

Mac blushed, and his eyes fell to the floor.

"I KNEW IT!" Riley cheered triumphantly. "Why didn't you say so?"

"Because…" Mac lifted his right arm to rub the back of his neck, he was still looking at the floor. "Because you dated Bozer for a few months… And even though that's a good while ago…"

"You'd feel like you were betraying him?"

Mac nodded. "And now you've obviously got your sights set on Kim…"

"NO! SHE HASN'T!" came from the living room.

"What?" Mac set his eyes on Riley.

"Kim agreed to play you… Because I had a suspicion…"

"You had a suspicion?"

Riley nodded and stepped even closer.

"A suspicion about what exactly?"

"About you liking me, you know… More than a friend…"

Mac blushed again, but this time he kept his eyes on Riley.

"So, you wanna be more than friends? Or do you want to continue this thing you've got going? You know… Sneaking glances at me, helping me out with things I don't need help with…"

Mac chuckled nervously, she had him cornered. Both literally and metaphorically.

"Because I know what I want, but I need you to say it too…" Riley added.

"But Bozer?"

"Bozer has started to ask me when he gets to be the best man at your wedding. I guess he's over me…" Riley shrugged. "So, is it a yes or a no?"

Mac grinned and pushed himself off the counter he was leaning on, he took the four limping steps he had to make to get over to Riley and placed his hands on top of her shoulders. When she smiled, he let his hands trail down her arms.

"It's a yes…" Mac smiled.

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"Is that good enough?" Jack asked, eyeing his handiwork.

"Best we can do with what we have…" Alex shrugged, also studying Jack's work.

"Look, obviously, you should be on a stretcher. You should be carried outta here…" Jack started, his eyes still locked on the makeshift splint, "But the situation we're in kinda makes that impossible…"

Alex nodded.

"And getting that dictator out of here too… Will be a pain in the ass if I have to concentrate on helping you. And leaving him here alone for the time it takes to get you to the extraction point…"

"That's a non-starter…"

Jack nodded in agreement.

"We could use him, when he wakes up…"

"How?"

"Use him as support…"

"He'll probably just try to run off on you…"

"When he wakes up, get him over here. Handcuff him to me…"

"Why? What do you have in mind?"

"I don't know yet… Scare him straight?"

"And how are a 24 year old supposed to scare a 24 year old supposed to scare an old man?"

"I have something in mind…" Alex shrugged, "Just roll with it…"

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"You can't do this!" the dictator growled, struggling against Jack's hold as he was lead towards Alex.

"Oh, we can… And we will."

"The court of human rights will hear about this!"

"Oh, you say so…" Jack grinned, rough handling the dictator as he lead him towards Alex on the floor. "A little fun fact for you… The World Court of Human Rights agreed to send us, and our orders were dead or alive…"

"You can't do this to _me!_ "

Jack ignored the dictator and directed his question to Alex. "Which side do you want him on?"

Alex looked up at Jack, casting a brief glance at the older man's left shoulder. "Maybe it's best for the both of us if I have him to my right…"

"Okay, so his left hand to your right then?"

Alex nodded, and Jack shoved the dictator down on the floor next to Alex and cuffed them together.

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"Okay, so… My leg is kinda messed up. Kinda feels like the Chernobyl of knee injuries…" Alex started, staring hard at the dictator, "So I'm gonna give you the opportunity to act like a decent human being for once, and help me…"

"Now why would I do that? What's in it for me?"

"Let's say you get to keep all of your teeth, how about that?" Alex stared coldly at the dictator.

"How are you going to do that? You're already hurt!"

"I've been doing martial arts since before I was five…" Alex said calmly, "How do you think I'm going to knock out a few of your teeth?"

"I'll have you know I'm an expert martial artist too…" the dictator threw back.

Alex looked the man up and down, "I don't think so…"

"Yes I am!"

"No. You're not…"

The dictator drew his right arm back and prepared to punch Alex in the face, but Alex caught his fist in midair.

"Told you you wasn't…" Alex grinned. "Now you've messed up, you know that?"

"What? You've got my fist in your hand, that's all you've got!"

"Oh, yeah… Well…" Alex shrugged, "You see, now I can break your arm with minimal effort… I can actually do it in like five different ways, just by twisting or bending my arm…"

Alex stared at the dictator with an expressionless look. The dictator had the same smug expression he had had all along.

"I could bend your hand up this way. I'd probably give you a hairline fracture, maybe mess up your wrist a little bit. By my estimates, you would have to have a cast for 3-4 weeks. No big deal, just hurts a bit…" Alex explained with ice in his voice, and saw a glister of fear behind the dictator's eyes.

"Or I could bend your wrist far to the outer or inner side of your arm, I don't really think I would fracture anything. But take it from me, ruptured ligaments and sinews are no fun either… Takes a hell of a time to heal after surgery, and you never know if it will be strong enough to trust." Alex smirked, pushing the dictator's fist sideways, causing the man to flinch.

"Or, my personal favorite... Well… At least when it comes to breaking arms…" Alex smiled and changed his grip enough to twist the dictator's arm, "This one will give you a spiral fracture. Common in domestic abuse and child abuse, I hate people who do such things to innocent people. But let's face it, you're not innocent. Therefore I will enjoy delivering whatever pain I can give you. I only have to twist my upper body a bit and then your ulna and radius will go crack…"

The dictator tried to twist out of Alex's iron grip, but got nowhere.

"No, no-no…" Alex grinned, "I told you to behave like a good little dictator… Now, back to the spiral fracture thingy… The time spent in a cast after that varies from 4 to 12 weeks. And trust me… That's a long ass time to have an itchy ca…"

Alex was cut off when the dictator tried to jam his free hand (the one handcuffed to Alex) into Alex's knee. He almost made it too, but misjudged the length of the handcuff chain and Alex's general strength.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Alex growled, drawing his handcuffed hand close to his chest. "That stunt right there, that just cost you a lot of pain."

Just as he finished speaking, Alex clubbed his forearm into the dictator's face. Something cracked under his forearm and blood exploded out of the dictator's mouth and nose immediately.

"OW!" the dictator complained and spat a few teeth.

"Oh, don't worry… I won't do that again, if you behave. If you don't behave, well… You've still got a few teeth left…"

Okay, that was real fear he saw behind the dictator's eyes. That was good.

"Now, are you going to behave?"

The dictator nodded.

"Attaboy… Now I'm going to release your fist, and you're going to act nicely. Or else…" Alex smiled and wrapped his right arm around the dictator's neck. "Jack, I think we're ready here…"

 **Okay, so…  
Because I feel like it's been forever since I posted anything (it's not… It's only a few days, but hey, in me-time it's like forever…), I figured you would rather have this chapter now, than an even longer chapter tomorrow or the day after that…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for the comments guys!  
(Oh, I just started watching Hawaii Five-0, and I'm not sure who I have the biggest crush on out of Danny or McGarrett. I just might make a fic or two for that show too in a while… IDK… *Currently watching the episode where Scott Caan's father guest-stars. 'Muscles' hahaha) Also: I crush easily… But you already knew that…**

"So, how did you know?" Mac asked raising his eyebrow at Kim.

"Anyone with two eyes and half a brain has seen this coming for months…" Kim grinned, "personally I was getting tired of waiting for the announcement."

Mac bit his lower lip and let his head fall back so he was looking at the ceiling. "Can't have been that obvious…"

"Oh, yes my friend… It was…" Kim chuckled, "Maybe you just were too close to see it clearly? That happens…"

Mac let his head fall forward again, and nodded. Then he looked over at Riley. "You know, women are allowed to make the first move…"

"I know… But I wanted to make sure first…" Riley blushed and leaned closer, "I mean, if I was wrong… I could end up losing one of my best friends…"

"And that was my exact problem too…" Mac shrugged back bumping his shoulder into Riley's shoulder.

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"Wait, wait-wait!" Alex gasped as he skipped between Jack and the dictator.

The two other men slowed down, allowing Alex to bend over and clasp his hands around his thigh.

"You need a break, buddy?"

"I need a wheelchair, that's what I need!" Alex almost shouted back.

"Kid, I wish I could get a wheelchair and some good drugs to magically appear here for you. But that's not happening…" Jack said as he rested his hand on Alex's back. "And we're kinda on the clock here…"

Alex nodded, and growled as he rose back up. "Yeah, I know… I know…"

"Preferably before any more of this man's goons clock on for their shift and find their co-workers in various degrees of hurt…"

Alex nodded again.

"Now, you ready to shift your ass into gear and get going again?"

Alex grimaced, but placed his arms across Jack and the dictator's shoulders.

"Gee, kid… I wish you were a little shorter…"

"And a little lighter on the scale…" the dictator growled.

"Oh, look… We've got a comedian!" Jack grumbled, but silently he agreed with the dictator. Alex was no lightweight.

"Let's just focus on what we need to do, 'kay? We need to get outta here…"

"I know!"

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As they were making their way down the final hallway of the building, a shot rang through the air. It missed Jack's head by about an inch, that was what it felt like anyway…

Jack pushed Alex and the dictator out of the way, and reached for his sidearm. In a burst of movement, he spun around and fired towards whoever had been shooting at them. It took him four bullets before the man collapsed and he could return his focus to Alex literally writing in pain.

"I didn't mean to hurt you!" Jack excused as he knelt down beside Alex. "I'm so sorry!"

Alex didn't respond. He was too busy being doubled over, protecting his knee.

"Kid, kid... I'm so damn sorry!"

"Didn't go quite as you planned G.I. Joe…" the dictator smirked.

"I advise you to shut the heck up, before I knock out the rest of your teeth…" Jack growled to the dictator. "Kid, can you push through this? Cause if I'm right, there's more dudes like that coming… And I don't think I've got that many bullets left."

Alex simply shook his head.

"You can't?"

Alex nodded.

"Okay, now look… If you weren't just a few inches and pounds short of Rob Gronkowski it would have been easy enough to carry you. Even with this shoulder. But you're huge…"

Alex glared back at Jack.

"Who is Rob Gronkowski?" the dictator asked.

"A pretty huge tight end... Playing for the Patriots…" Jack explained, rolling his eyes. "Are you sure you can't make it the rest of the way between me and turdball over there?"

Alex grimaced and uncurled from the position he was in. "Not right now…"

"Not right now?" Jack repeated, "Does that mean that you think you will be able to do so in a few minutes?"

Alex nodded,

"Okay, might wanna hurry up then… Because I think I heard someone shouting something where we came from…"

Alex nodded again, and squared his shoulders. "Okay… Sure."

"Ready to go?"

"Do I have a choice?" Alex winced.

"Not really…" Jack admitted as he ducked under Alex's left arm to help him up.

 **Sorry for posting so little lately. I've had 14 days straight with 13 hour night-shifts and I caught this bug that is going around at my workplace, so the last 36 hours has been spent under my covers hoping that my body would stop aching and wishing that I could somehow get warm…  
But hey, I got to watch Super Bowl! (As a Norwegian, I don't really have a team I consider as 'mine', but one of my mates were cheering for the Falcons, so I decided it would be fun if I cheered for the Patriots. And I have to say it was an AWESOME game! So maybe I'll cheer for the Patriots from now on? I don't know… We'll see… Maybe if I move to the states one day, I'll find myself a team to cheer for, who knows…)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, I'm baaaack!**

"No, no! This ain't working!" Alex gasped, they had only made it a couple of yards but Alex had turned a worrisome shade of white.

"How do you guys do it when you're out on assignments and one of you gets hurt real bad?" Jack asked as he motioned for them to head over to a table standing under an old painting.

"Usually it's not that big of a problem…"

"Oh yeah? Remember, I've seen a few of your scars… I know you guys must be holding some kind of record in that department."

"Well, usually it doesn't hurt this bad!"

"What would Kim do now?"

"I don't know…"

"Aw, come on! You know your twin well enough to make an educated guess!"

"He would probably carry me… Against my will…"

"Well, he's a bit bigger and stronger than me I guess…"

"Bigger, yes. Stronger? Guess we can blame that on your shoulder, buddy…"

"I'm not joking." Jack locked eyes with Alex, "I know Kim is stronger than me. I can tell that by only looking at you guys, you're built like human tanks…"

"You're exaggerating…" Alex noted with his eyes squeezed shut. "We're well-built, I know that… But we're not some super-sized hulk-dudes…"

"If I ever meet your mother, I have to ask her what she was feeding you two… Cause you are indeed massive."

"Are you going to stand there and rattle on about my size, or are you going to find a solution to our problem?"

"Why can't you find a solution?"

"Honestly, my leg hurts so much I can't think straight!"

"OH…"

Alex nodded.

"An office chair? Would that do?"

Alex shook his head. "You saw what my leg did when you helped me off the floor less than a minute ago… How do you think it will go if I sit down without support under my damn leg?"

"Right…" Jack grimaced as he tried to figure out something that would work. "You've got your gun? Right?"

"Yup…"

"Still a couple of bullets left?"

"Two short of a full clip…"

"Okay, stay here. Shoot anyone except me… You got it?"

Alex nodded again.

"Now, this building used to be public. Have you ever seen a place that offers paid tours and don't have wheelchairs standing around?"

"Yeah…"

"You have?"

Alex nodded.

"Was that in this country?"

Alex seemed to be sorting through his memories, before he shook his head.

"Now unless those have been thrown out recently, they should still be here somewhere. My guess is somewhere near the main entrance."

Alex grimaced, but nodded. "You could be right…"

"How about you Dick?" Jack looked at the dictator, "Have you thrown away the wheelchairs?"

"My name is not Dick… It's"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE?" Jack barked back, "I'm going to call you dick, cause you're a dictator! It's fitting! Now, about the wheelchairs…"

"Why would I tell you? I'm not on your team!"

"Kid, whatever pain you feel for administering him… Go for it!" Jack looked at Alex and pointed to the dictator.

"My pleasure, Jack!" Alex bit out, cracking his knuckles in a threatening way while looking at the dictator.

"Be right back…"

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"If you let me go, I can pay you a couple of billion dollars…" the dictator offered with an almost toothless smile.

"Look, Mr. Numbskull… Money is not why I do what I do…" Alex replied, rolling his eyes.

"I bet it will be more money that you've ever seen…"

Alex took a deep breath and exhaled in a controlled manner. "That might be so… But I've already got enough money to last me a lifetime. At least considering the life expectancy of people in my line of work…"

"Aw, come on… You could live like a king…"

"Look, I grew up poor. I know how to get by on a budget… And frankly, I don't need to be able to have someone cook me lobsters every day…"

"But it would be fun? Wouldn't it?"

"Not really my thing…"

"Now, what is your 'thing'?"

"My thing is…" Alex paused to overcome another jolt of pain shooting up his leg. "My thing is packing my bag, hiking into the woods and lighting up a bonfire. Snowboarding when there's snow and hills around and climbing in the summer. I don't need more money for that…"

"But with my money you could visit Whistler and Breckenridge anytime you'd want…"

"I'm more into the small resorts with a little soul… You know, the places that hasn't changed since the 70's… But the absolute best is off piste, couple of friends steep terrain and a snowmobile as the lift."

"Okay, but your medical bills must be off the charts… You could probably use my money for that…"

"Nope…"

"Nope, what do you mean nope?"

"I mean, the agency I work for cover all medical expenses. Even if I get the injury outside of work…"

The dictator's face fell a little.

"Don't you wanna be rich?"

Alex shrugged, "I'm more of the eternal adventurer… And I've already got more money than I need…"

"But you could travel the world!"

"I already do that…"

"Without getting shot at."

"Tempting… But I guess that's all a part of the adventure…" Alex almost smirked, it was amusing to see the dictator grabbing at the grass, trying to get a good handhold.

"There must be something!"

"Not anything money can solve…" Alex replied stiffening a grimace.

"Okay… Okay… You're crazy… You know that?"

"I've been made aware of it a couple of times…" Alex agreed.

"What is it you want most in life?"

"Right now?" Alex asked, "Think the winner is a good dose of morphine… And after that, waffles…"

"And how may I bribe you?"

"Can't you just realize that it's impossible?"

"It's never impossible to bribe people… Or threaten them…"

"That's correct, but you do need to know what they want or need… Or what they are most afraid of…" Alex bounced back.

"You, you're probably afraid of more pain right now… I could kick your knee…" the dictator lisped past his missing teeth, "I won't if you set me free…"

"And I won't break every single bone in your arms if you stay away from my knee…" Alex shot back calmly, his eyes daring the dictator to say something. "Now, that's 30 bones in each arm… I'm not counting past the upper arm… Just so you know that…"

The dictator swallowed and looked down. "Okay, I won't do that…"

"I think that's the first smart move you've made in a decade…"

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There weren't any wheelchairs where he hoped there would be. In fact, he saw a sign for rentable wheelchairs, but there weren't any in sight. That plan was a bust.

There had to be some other way to make this work. Preferably rather quickly. Alex was in a lot of pain, and they didn't know how much time they had before the dictator's guards made another appearance. If everything had gone according to the plan, they would have been out of there almost half an hour ago.

He looked around. At first he couldn't see anything that would help them out of this tight spot, but then he spotted it.

A neat, good sized, serving trolley covered with wood to make it blend in with the rest of the furniture better.

He grabbed the trolley and ran back towards Alex and the dictator.

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"I didn't find a wheelchair, but I think this'll work!" Jack declared and patted the upper tray.

"Yeah, looks good." Alex smiled, "Might need some help to get on it though…"

"Guess that old man over there won't be able to help you with that…"

"I figure he's not strong enough…" Alex nodded.

"I was afraid you would say that…" Jack frowned, "Any plans on how to do this?"

Alex waved Jack closer and wrapped his right arm around Jack's back and his left over Jack's good shoulder.

"Now, how much can you squat?"

"Repeatedly?"

"Heavy single…"

"300 lbs… 235 when I do reps…"

"Now if I hook my good leg behind my right leg, and you squat down and grab a hold behind my knees. This should work…"

"You sure? Cause my shoulder…"

"Your shoulder is taken out of the equation. This is going to rely on your other arm and the strength in your legs…"

Jack nodded and bent down to grab a hold of Alex's legs.

"Okay, on three?"

"Yup…" Alex agreed.

"One. Two. Three!" Jack let out a guttural growl as he lifted Alex off the ground and onto the trolley. "Dude, you seriously need to lose some weight…"

"Trust me… I won't do anything about it…" Alex declared as he released his grip around Jack's neck. "I look sick if I drop below 220 lbs…"

"You're kidding now?"

"Kidding just as much as that guy who just entered the hallway!" Alex called reaching for his gun as Jack spun around to use his last bullets.

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Alex watched in horror as Jack went down with a yelp in front of him.

Alex recovered quickly enough to put a bullet through the guard's neck. It wasn't a precision shot, but it did the job, quickly.

"Jack?" Alex asked weakly, afraid of not getting an answer. "You alive big guy?"

A growl from the floor answered him, and made him relax a lot more.

"Yeah… Yup…" the older man's voice suddenly seemed hoarse, but it could be because of the pain. "I'm good…"

"Then why are you on the floor? Did you catch a bunch of lead?"

"WHAT? Yeah, I caught a bullet!" Jack growled as he pushed to his feet, his right hand clamped over a wet red stain on his left upper arm.

"You need a tourniquet to slow that bleeding…" Alex ordered and shrugged off his own sweater. "Come over here…"

"Let's just get outta here…"

"After we do something about that leak you've got going on your arm…"

"Okay, just…"

"Hurry?"

"Yeah…"

 **Okay, so… Hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank y'all so much for the comments/support!**

Alex slipped out of his side of the handcuffs, he just had to pull his thumb out of its socket. A move which once had been painful for him, it wasn't painful anymore. He wasn't quite sure whether he should worry about that or not. Maybe he should.

He then clicked his side of the handcuffs around the handlebar of the trolley. He could use the key in his pocket to unlock the cuffs later. He was just too lazy to pull out the key to free himself, dislocating his thumb took less effort after all.

"Dude, how did you? WE HAVE KEYS!" Jack grimaced as he caught the tail end of Alex's actions as the younger agent slid his thumb back into position.

"This was quicker…"

"And probably hurt a lot too!"

"No."

"You DISLOCATED your thumb to get out if the handcuffs!" Jack almost shouted at him. "That's got to hurt!"

"Kinda doesn't hurt to do it anymore…"

"Now, that's messed up!" Jack said as he started pushing the trolley towards the exit. "Please don't do anything like that in close proximity of me ever again!"

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"Here, take my gun…" Alex said handing over his sidearm to Jack after the older agent had helped him inside the helicopter.

"What? Why?"

"I'm going to hop in the front seat, I'll take care of the stick…" Alex took a second to swallow down a grimace, "You aim and shoot at anyone coming after us…"

"Why can't I fly and you shoot?"

"Because the one to do the shooting should be able to move from side to side back here… I can't do that… You can…"

"Are you sure you can keep the chopper in the air?"

Alex nodded, gripped the backs of the front seats and used them as support as he moved to the front of the chopper.

"Won't the pedals be a problem?"

"I've done this kinda crap before…" Alex commented as he lowered himself onto the main pilot's seat.

"Oh yeah? When?"

"La Habana, exactly two years ago... Open fracture, thigh." Alex bit out as he placed his injured leg at an angle where the splinting would be sufficient to keep his knee straight.

"And where was Kim when that was going down?"

"He was a little busy being unconscious in the back. The guys we were sent in to take care of had shot him with a tranquillizer dart… He didn't wake up before we touched down in Miami."

"You made that trip in a helicopter with a broken leg?"

Alex nodded, "Yeah… Hell of a way to celebrate your birthday… Am I right?"

"Wait… Today's your birthday?" Jack asked and saw Alex's head bob up and down from the pilot's seat. "February 14th? Really?"

"Yeah…"

"Valentine's day?"

"Want to see my birth certificate?"

"No… Nonono…" Jack muttered as he cuffed the dictator to the rail at the back of the helicopter. "Happy birthday, by the way… And a word of advice… Find a better way to spend your birthday than to get injured!"

"I'll try to remember that this time next year…" Alex hissed, "On second thought… Could you send me a message telling me not to go on missions around my birthday?"

"I'll get Riley to set up some kind of auto message…" Jack drawled as he aimed his gun at the first person to run after them, just as Alex made the helicopter lift off the ground.

 **Remembered that it was February 14** **th** **, and Valentine's day, today... And to me that means one little thing to me, Alex and Kim's birthday! Wohoo!  
I had to let you guys know, right?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay, so… Let's get on with this thing…**

 **Sorry it's been a while, I've kept myself busy writing original stuff. Things that might end up on Kindle… I don't know… Maybe…**

Alex struggled to concentrate. He felt like he was about to fall asleep at the wheel, -or stick.

He cast a glance down at his right knee. Judging by how it felt, the next five or six months were going to be bad. Filled with surgeries and the dreaded physical therapy to follow said surgeries. But then again, it could be a lot better than what he feared.

"How are you doing back there Jack-o?" he asked, hating how the pain seeped into his voice and colored it.

"All under control!"

The answer calmed his nerves a bit, it meant that Jack was still up and about, and likely not hit by any more bullets.

"And you?"

"Hanging in there…" Alex answered and cleared his voice, "Are you still in range of shooting anyone?"

"Nah…"

"Okay, uhmm…" Alex squeezed his eyes shut for a second to overcome a nauseating wave of pain, "Whenever you're ready, could you join me as a co-pilot?"

"Sure. Just want to make sure our guest doesn't get too comfortable first…" Jack grunted. Alex recognized the smacking sound that came next, it sounded like someone got pistol-whipped.

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"Whoa! Weren't you like… tan when we left this morning?" Jack asked as he climbed in between the two front seats. "You could try out for the role of Casper in Bozer's next movie…"

Alex said nothing, he had to focus on keeping the helicopter level and on course. And he was starting to slip.

"Okay. You're hurting pretty bad then?"

Alex still kept his mouth shut, as he was white knuckling the stick.

"Want me to take over?"

"Yes, please…" Alex ground out, visibly relaxing as Jack flicked the switch from right to left allowing himself to take full control over the chopper.

"Scale 1 to 10?" Jack asked, keeping an eye on Alex to see his reaction.

"Brussels sprouts…"

"WHAT?"

"Brussels sprouts."

"You've got to tell me what you mean! And don't just say Brussels sprouts…"

"Brussels sprouts." Alex almost growled, "We had to go away from the 1-10 scale after a while…"

"Okay, for guys who don't speak LAB-twin, please give me a quick translation."

"Brussels sprouts are almost the worst thing you can put on my plate… But I would eat it in a life or death situation, or at grandma's…" Alex winced.

"Being at your grandma's place is a life or death situation?"

"If you don't eat what she serves… Yeah… Almost…"

"So that's why you two look like giants?"

"You'd laugh your ass off if you saw our youngest brother…"

"He's the runt of the gang?"

"I think it's 'runt of the litter', but yeah…" Alex let his head fall back, it was easier to talk now that he didn't have to concentrate on flying the chopper. His leg still hurt, a lot. But he didn't feel like passing out any more. "He's sinewy and short… Looks nothing like his three big bro's…"

"So there's more of you?"

"It's me and Kim. Jonas he's four years younger than us. And then there's Adam and Lisa, six years younger than Kim and I, they are also twins…"

"There's a lot of twins in your family?"

"A few…"

"We've only got one set in our family…"

"Yeah?"

"I've got a twin brother, he used to work for CSI down in Las Vegas. He transferred to someplace else a few years ago, I was too busy to really catch what city he talked about…"

"A few years ago? And you haven't checked up on it?"

"He knows enough about what I do to know that no news are good news…"

"But don't you think he'd like to hear from you? Don't you miss him?" Alex asked, gritting his teeth against the pain his leg served up.

"Sure I do…" Jack nodded and cast a glance over at Alex, "But… Him and the rest of our family, they live normal lives. Normal, calm… I don't need to bring whatever storm I am into their lives again."

"I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that they'd like it…"

"Sorry bro, think I burned that bridge back in '09…"

"How? Did you fake your own death?"

Jack shook his head.

"Then that bridge isn't burnt…" Alex fixed a stare at Jack, "It wouldn't have been completely burnt if you _had_ faked your own death either… My dad did that to us… Sure, when I found out he was very much alive, I was angry. Very angry… But now… We're buddies. Took a little time and some effort, but I see why he did it, and I might have made the same call myself…"

Jack grinned a bit, "Your dad actually faked his own death?"

"Yup…"

"No wonder you guys are weird…"

"Weird?"

"In a super-soldier kinda way…" Jack grinned.

"Trust me, there is nothing super about us…"

"Oh yeah?" Jack prompted, "Then what was that spinning Jackie Chan leap-flip thing you did down the stairs when that goon was coming up it?"

"That was just a butterfly kick with some alterations…"

"No… That was defying gravity…" Jack stated, staring back at Alex.

"TREETOP!"

"Crap! –Sorry…" Jack breathed a sigh of relief after he had just barely missed the pine.

"You're as safe a pilot as my brother!" Alex groaned, pressing his palm down at his thigh near his hip. He didn't want to touch his leg closer to his knee.

"Sorry… Sorry…" Jack muttered, "I haven't almost crashed with a three before…"

"Well, let's NOT repeat it!" Alex suggested as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"I second that…" Jack nodded, keeping his eyes on the landscape.

"Hey, uhmm… Did you buffalo the dictator before you climbed up front?" Alex asked with a subtle smirk forming on his lips.

"Mhmm…" Jack nodded, "Didn't want to listen to his commentary track… Figured a nice smack to the head with the butt of my pistol would do just fine!"

Alex's grin widened, "Dude, you just made my top 10 favorite people list…"

"Only top 10?"

"Hey, I come from a big family…" Alex held his hands up in surrender.

"Yeah, okay… You have a point there…" Jack grinned, "I think you and your doppelganger is creeping into my list too…"

"I'm honored…"

"Not sure it's a good thing to be on that list though…"

"Hey, better than to be on your '10-people-I'd-like-to-kill' list…" Alex shrugged, "I sure as heck don't want to end up on that one…"

"Yeah, well… You've got a point there…" Jack smirked, "Man… I need a few weeks' worth of rest now…"

"Amen to that…"

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Kim stretched and flexed the fingers of his left hand. He was getting sick and tired of sitting around, and his shoulder bothered him. Out of the twins, he was the calm, cool and collected one, but that didn't mean he was built to sit still and rest. No. He was just a little less crazy than Alex.

"Can I get you anything?" Riley asked, her eyes locked on his hand. "Ice? Something for the pain? Anything?"

Kim shook his head, "Nah… I'm just a little, err… Restless…"

"You sure?" Mac asked, leaning forward as much as the leg he had propped up on the ottoman allowed him. "Cause last time I checked, those kinds of injuries hurt bad… For a good while…"

"Yeah, they do…" Kim agreed, "But right now, the problem is that my energy reserve is overflowing… And I can't really do anything about it…"

"What do you usually do when that's a problem?"

"Go for a run, climb, practice some free-running…" Kim shrugged his good shoulder, "A good game of football always helps, paintball… Lifting weights… And hand-to-hand practice… Just to name a few of the things I can't do right now…"

Riley couldn't help but giggle, she felt sorry for the guy, but the big muscly guy on the other side of the table seemed so helpless in is current state. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Kim smirked and nodded. "It's alright…"

"Hey, how about we distract ourselves with a movie or some board game?"

"That would have to be a movie… I don't have any board games here…" Riley shot in.

"Movie it is then…" Kim grinned.

 **Okay, hope you enjoyed. Once again, sorry that it took so long for me to post another chapter… Sorry!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Heeeellloooooo!**

"What did you do? Rob a hardware store!?" Dr. Parker asked as he looked over the X-rays again. He tipped his glasses down and counted. "Seven plates, somewhere north of 50 screws… Wires? What do you do for a living? Stuntman?"

Alex looked at the same picture, remembering the incidents that had caused all of the metal to placed in his leg.

"Yeah…" he nodded and looked down towards his right leg. "I do a lot of motorcycle stunts, and tricking…"

The doctor studied the pictures again and turned back to Alex. "I'd recommend you to choose a different career…"

Alex shrugged, "Well, I enjoy what I do…"

"You can't enjoy this…" the doctor pointed to the screen, where all sorts of metal objects lit up the pictures.

"No, that's the less glamorous part of the job…" he admitted, "But I do it for the thrill… So I'd probably just do stupid things on my own time if I had to…"

The doctor nodded, "Okay then… But what would make you quit that?"

"Nothing short of being bound to a wheelchair I guess…" he shrugged, "I don't really put that much thought to it…"

"Well, I'm just saying this to try to save you from problems in the future, quit now. While you can still walk away from it…"

Alex fought hard not to roll his eyes as he mentally cussed regular, public doctors and surgeons like Dr. Parker. It was so much easier with the special staff his team, or Jack's team, had. But with the times being like they were and their flight back to LA not being scheduled for another day, it was best to seek out some professionals. Even if they were _regular_ doctors.

 **Okay, trying to post again and actually finish this sometime…**


	9. Chapter 9

**Here we go again…**

Alex called his brother while he waited for Jack to return from whatever they were doing to him. It didn't take long for his twin to pick up.

"YEAHHELLO…" the greeting was rushed.

"Busy?"

"No…"

"You sounded busy…" Alex shrugged.

"Almost dropped my phone… One functioning arm, remember?" Kim revealed, "I'm not busy at all… Are you done with the mission?"

"Yeah, we are…"

"And?"

"And what?"

"How did it go?" Kim pressed, "Was it a success?"

"We completed the mission within our time limit…" Alex nodded, shooting his knee a cold glare.

"Good…" Kim said before he paused, "And you're okay? Both of you?"

"-Been worse…"

"'Been worse' means 'could be better'…" Kim deduced, "What's wrong?"

"Can we switch to a Video Call?"

"Sure…"

"Just a sec…" Alex hung up and spent a few seconds setting up the call.

Another couple of seconds later his brother's face showed up on his screen.

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"So… How bad?" Kim asked as he studied his brother's face. Alex shrugged in response. "Dude, how bad?"

"Well, my leg is in this thing…" Alex said before he tapped the icon to use the camera on the back of his phone instead, showing Kim the brace immobilizing his knee.

"That's the kind that keeps your knee completely still, right?"

Alex tapped the icon to switch camera again, and nodded. "Yeah, couldn't bend my knee even if I wanted to…"

"But that's not something you want to do…"

"Definitely not…" Alex nodded again.

"What happened?" Kim asked.

"Someone tackled me… Knee collapsed."

"Collapsed?"

"Yeah, something gave…"

"Something gave?"

"Yeah… You know how the knee is supposed to be a hinge joint?"

"…Yeah…" Kim nodded and frowned. He had a feeling of where this was headed, "How is it now?"

"Imagine a ball and socket joint with no resistance and a poor or flat socket…"

Kim did that exact mistake of imagining just that, and the picture which formed in his mind was bad enough to make him shudder. "That's gross…"

"That's painful…" Alex corrected.

"Yeah, I bet…" Kim agreed, "But it's gross too… Surgery?"

"Not today…" Alex shrugged, "It could wait…"

"But you have one coming for you?"

"My knee turned into a universal joint… What do you think?"

Kim grimaced at the mental image, "Yeah…"

"Correct…" Alex nodded, "How about you? How's the shoulder?"

"When my arm's strapped against my chest it's kinda okay…" Kim nodded towards his arm, "As long as I remember to drug myself down every now and then…"

"Painful in other words?"

"Ding-ding-ding… We have a winner…" Kim rolled his eyes, "Yeah, it sucks…"

Kim saw Alex looking up towards the left, he recognized his twin's 'thinking-face'.

"Did you remember to take the 4 o'clock painkillers?" Alex finally asked, after he had finished calculating what time it was back in LA.

"Took them 5 minutes ago."

"Started working?"

Kim shrugged his good shoulder, "Might have… Or it might just be placebo. You know, sometimes it helps a bit just knowing you've taken 'em…"

"Yeah, I know…" Alex nodded, "Where's Mac and Riley?"

"Oh, Mac's in the kitchen. Riley went to get something in her car." Kim craned his neck to look towards the kitchen.

Alex nodded.

"So… Crutches or wheelchair?"

"Huh?"

"What did they give you?" Kim tilted his head, "Crutches or wheelchair?"

"I got away with crutches," Alex moved his phone to show the crutches leaned against the wall behind him, "But I hope hopping around is gonna get a little more comfy when my knee is reassembled…"

"Hurts?"

"Like a mother-…" Alex let the expletive trail off. "But like the Terminator, 'I'll be back'…"

"Man, I think you're three plates and eight screws away from actually being the Terminator…"

"Nah… It's more than that…"

"Whatever, you're part Terminator anyway…"

"You're no better…" Alex raised his eyebrows in a judging manner, "I'm not sure, but I think we're pretty much tied when it comes to hardware…"

"Okay, that's probably true…" Kim nodded and looked towards the kitchen again, "So… When are you coming back here?"

"We're coming back with the scheduled flight…"

"Okay, so… The day after tomorrow?"

"Correct." Alex nodded.

"Hey, try not to flirt too much with the hot nurses over there…" Kim instructed, "Or hot guys… Let them have some space too…"

"What do you take me for?"

"Someone who looks at flirting like a sport…" Kim shrugged his good shoulder once more, "I feel obliged to protect innocent victims from that… I mean, some of your tactics can be pretty pathetic."

"Kim…"

"Yeah…?"

"You're a douchebag…"

"I miss you too, brother…"

"Not what I said…" Alex rolled his eyes.

"But it's what I heard…" Kim winked, "But hey, the others are coming back now… I'll call you later…"

"Okay…" Alex nodded, "Say hi from me…"

"Will do…"

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Luckily his leg didn't require emergency surgery, he was just placed in a brace to enable him to move around with the help of crutches. That was a win in his book.

The doctors just patched up Jack's GSW, and gave him a sling to help keep his shoulder still. They were uncertain whether he would need surgery to it, but it could easily wait for a couple of days or even weeks.

The dictator had been taken away by someone higher up on the food chain, he would stand trial and most likely spend the rest of his useless life in an 6x8 cell.

Everything seemed to be looking up.

 **Okay… Soo… Hope you had fun reading this. I now have a plan for maybe the next two chapters. (At least one)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay. So… Another chapter… GREAT.**

"Whoa… Steady there big guy…" Jack held up one hand in case he had to catch Alex if he stumbled.

" 'm doin' fine…" the words oozed of stubbornness.

For Jack it was like seeing himself at that age, as the younger special agent hobbled up the stairs from the fourth to the fifth floor. They were headed towards the cafeteria. Hell, he was still like that sometimes. Too stubborn for his own good, he knew it...

"You could opt for a wheelchair… It'd be easier y'know…"

"Nah… Wheelchairs suck…" Alex ground out as he took a small break on the plateau between the floors. "Besides, it's good exercise…"

"Wheelchairs don't suck…" Jack shot back, just as Alex continued his journey up the stairs, "Wheelchairs are a very useful help when you need them…"

"Yeah, when you _need_ them…" Alex spoke over his breath, "I can use these, I don't need one…"

"Also, the elevator could have been easier on you…"

"Exercise."

"That's bullsh-" Jack started, before he realized that there probably was a _reason_ for why the young agent outright refused to consider a wheelchair. "-it… What's your deal with wheelchairs anyway?"

"Nothing…" Alex drew a deep breath as he conquered the last of the steps and made it to the fifth floor. "Just don't need one…"

Jack made a mental note to check with Kim, if there was a deep seated issue his twin probably knew what it was. Jack guessed that it wouldn't exactly be a secret per se. No, most likely it was something Alex didn't exactly realize himself.

MACGYVERxLAB

"So, given any thought to who's gonna fix up your leg?" Jack asked as he chewed on some vegetables. Alex sat sideways at the other side of the table with his injured leg stretched out on a chair in front of him.

Alex shrugged as he lifted some meatloaf with his fork, "Guess I'll let our team take care of that. Even though it'll be a week or two before I'm back at the headquarters…"

Jack nodded, "I'm having a friend over to take a look at my shoulder. He's a really great Ortho surgeon, incredibly good with legs. He borrows one of the surgery rooms at the Phoenix Foundation when he's by."

"He's good?" Alex asked before bringing his fork to his mouth.

"Not good. Great." Jack corrected, "Fixed my knee up two years ago, trust me… It's SOLID."

Alex chewed and swallowed, then he placed his fork back down on the plate and abandoned it there for the time being.

"I don't know…" Alex ran a hand through his hair, "The medical staff at LAB are real good too…"

"Yeah, I know that…" Jack nodded, "But like you said, it's gonna be a week, at least… My guy is coming to LA tomorrow."

"It's kinda tempting…"

"At least have him take a look at your knee. If you don't feel perfectly safe having him fixing you up, you could always wait for the LAB guys…"

Alex looked towards his knee, and the brace stretching the length of his leg. "I could always have him take a look at it…"

"You should…"

"Wait, coming to LA…? He's not there already?"

"Nah…" Jack shook his head, "He lives upstate New York, but I sent him a text saying that I messed up my shoulder. Y'know, when, what and where…"

Alex smirked.

"And he answered half an hour later that he could take a few days off, come over to LA and see what he could do."

"Where'd you find this guy anyway?"

"Oh, he was the medic on our squad for a whole bunch of years when I was with the Delta Force."

"So he's a tough guy?"

"Damn straight he is…" Jack nodded proudly, "One of the most badass men I know."

"That means a lot coming from a guy like you…" Alex noted, "You said he was your medic… He liked patching people up enough to go further within the medical field when he got too old to be with the Unit or something? Must be pretty old then…"

"No… He's…" Jack tried to think out how old he had to be, but came up empty. "He's younger than me…"

"Decided to quit when his first contract was up then? You sign up for 10 years or something the first time don't you?"

"No… He didn't quit." Jack shook his head, "Pete's no quitter… Never have been, never will be…"

"He had a medical degree and decided to join Special Forces?"

"No…" Jack shook his head again, starting to understand why Kim sometimes called Alex dense. "He got injured, badly. He _couldn't_ continue."

"Oh…" Alex nodded and looked down at his leg, concern broadcasting on his face.

"Hey, nothing like that… Okay?" Jack reached out and nudged Alex's shoulder, "Pete had his lower leg blown off. Your leg will be fine."

"You sure?" Alex flexed his jaw, "Cause I think I might have hit a whole new level of fucked up this time…"

"I'm sure kid…" Jack nodded, "He has really made a name for himself back in New York…"

"Okay, if he's already going to LA. And if it's not too much trouble for him… I guess it wouldn't hurt if he just took a look at my leg… If he's got the time…"

"He has…"

"He has?" Alex raised his eyebrows, "How do you know?"

"Oh, I mentioned that I might have a friend that could use him too. He's prepared…"

"I could have refused…"

"Yeah, he knew that it wasn't decided yet…" Jack shrugged one shoulder, "He said he could always find something else to do if he suddenly got a bit extra time on his hands. But he's prepared if you decide you want his help…"

Alex nodded and leaned his head against the wall, "Okay… This could be interesting…"

"It'll work out…"

 **Okay, another chapter down. Hope you enjoyed.**

 **Next few chapters could be interesting… My 'enabler' might regret her decisions… hahaha  
Oh dear… First I've gotta sort through my idea…**


	11. Chapter 11

**Okay, so… Let's see where this goes…**

Jack hadn't bothered going home when they made it back to LA, so Alex didn't bother getting back to where he and Kim stayed either. The infirmary was just as good a place as any to stay, certainly when your leg almost acted like that arm from that one Harry Potter movie. Well, sorta. It wasn't his leg, it was only his knee, but there weren't much holding it together so the brace was an absolute necessity.

He hadn't even made it up in the hospital bed when his brother barged through the door.

"Damn, are you okay?"

Alex made his best effort of not to growl out in pain as he helped himself up, hooking his good leg behind his bad one to make it easier to get that up as well.

"It's nothing…" Alex basically panted, his eyes shut tight as the wave of pain washed over him.

"Yeah…? Right…?" Kim placed his right hand to his hip, his left arm was still nestled in the sling. "Then why do you look like you're about to pass out?"

"I don't look that bad…"

"No… You always look like a vampire with anemia…"

Alex chuckled, "I am a bit hungry, if that's what you're getting at… Maybe that's why…"

"Not what I meant…" Kim rolled his eyes and reached for his twin's leg, already knowing what the reaction would be.

"DON'TTOUCH!"

"See, you already told me that you've torn pretty much everything in there… Might as well fess up to it being bad…"

Alex sighed heavily before he pulled himself a little further towards the headboard. "It's nothing I can't handle…"

Kim smirked as his brother let out a silent cussword, "Would have been a little bit more convincing if you actually made it to the top of the bed without having to take a break…"

"Shutup,shutup,shutup…" Alex whispered past a grimace. His head dropped and his fists clenched as hard as they would go.

"Want me to go get a nurse to help you?" there was real worry in his eyes.

"No." Alex shook his head, "I want you to just shut the hell up until I get settled here…"

Kim tilted his head and rolled his eyes, "Dude, you're breaking a sweat…"

"Shut up." Alex growled.

"Alright…"

Alex let out a slow breath as he finally got settled up against the angled top of the bed. His next mission was a little easier, elevating his leg on a small mountain of pillows. As soon as that was done he laid back and closed his eyes.

"How's it feelin'?"

"No comment…"

Kim smirked as he sat down in the chair in the corner. "I bet you I'll be doing pull-ups before you start walking…"

"Hah! Dream on brother!" Alex shot back, "Give me a month or so and I'll be walking around, looking like an old granny, but I'll be walking! You still have a month left with that sling! There's no way you'll be able to do pull-ups straight away!"

"You sure about that…?"

"Yeah!"

"Absolutely sure?"

"Yeah! I said so!"

"Wanna bet?"

"Sure, money, dares or favor?"

Kim rubbed his cheek as he acted like he was debating which option to choose.

"Money…" he decided, "None of us are up for tricking around at the moment, so dares are out of the question. Favors too, neither of us are carrying the other one's backpack for a while either…"

"Okay. How does 10 bucks sound?"

"Well, ain't that a little bit cowardly?" Kim chuckled, "Gotta go 50 at least…"

"Okay, 50 dollars… If…" Alex agreed, "…I just have to walk without crutches, and you just have to do one pull-up."

Kim nodded, "You're allowed to limp as much as you want to…"

"Okay, you've got yourself a deal." Alex nodded.

"Deal." Kim smirked.

"You're gonna lose…" Alex shrugged, "But I don't mind taking your money…"

"We'll see about that…" Kim chuckled.

 **Okay, I planned on scrapping this chapter when I was halfway through it.**

 **It's not a long chapter, and it's been a while since I posted anything for this fic. So, sorry…**


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay… I planned on writing during my 3-4 hour break earlier today… I remember sitting down on the couch…  
-Then I woke up by the alarm I have set to remind me that it is 5 minutes until I'm supposed to be back in the taxi… Guess I needed some sleep…?**

 **Anyway… I'm awake at the keyboard now. (And I should really be making something to eat, but… No motivation whatsoever… Procrastinating? Me? Never…**

Mac knocked on the door and waited until he heard Jack's voice on the other side before he opened the door and stepped into the room.

"Hey Mac…" Jack smirked from where he was laying on the bed. He had the TV-remote in his hand and was currently switching through channels.

"Hey there…" Mac nodded back as he limped towards the older man.

"Still not better?" Jack half-asked, half-assessed, "Sure you shouldn't be on crutches kid?"

Mac shook his head, "No, my ankle is better. Just a little tired. And it's called a 'walking boot' for a reason…"

"I still think you should limit yourself…" Jack mumbled, before he nodded towards the chair in the corner. "Sit down, will ya?"

Mac rolled his eyes, but walked over to the chair and sat down. "Happy now?"

Jack nodded.

"How's your arm by the way? What's wrong with it?"

"Dislocated my shoulder pretty bad, and took a slug to my upper arm…" Jack shrugged his uninjured shoulder.

"And where did it hit?"

"A few inches below my shoulder. Didn't hit bone, but still messed up the muscles a fair bit…"

"In other words, it hurts a bit…"

Jack frowned, then nodded. "Yeah, it's a little bit more than 'sore'. But it's still far from the worst I've experienced…"

"Well, if it was _near_ the worst you've experienced I'd be real worried." Mac chuckled.

Jack nodded, "Yeah…"

"So… When's Pete coming?"

Jack chuckled, "Did he call you, or did you just guess?"

"He dropped me a message. Asked if he could crash in the guestroom… But he said he would stop by here first."

Jack nodded, "I should have known…"

Mac nodded, "Well, I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise…"

"No… It shouldn't…" Jack chuckled, "Have you seen Alex?"

Mac shook his head, "Kim went for Alex's room and I headed straight for yours…"

Jack nodded. "How about Pete? Have you met him?"

Mac shook his head, "Got a text that he had landed…"

Jack nodded, "Okay, so he should be showing up any minute now. The guys downstairs recognize him by now…"

Mac chuckled, "Yeah, remember the first time he visited like this?"

Jack shook his head, "Had a mother of a concussion… I don't really remember any of that week…"

Mac nodded, "Well, he spent two hours trying to get past the security. Patricia had to go down there herself."

"Right…" Jack nodded, "Still don't remember it…"

"Last time it took him what? Five minutes?"

Jack nodded at that, "Yeah, and most of that time was spent having a cup of coffee with Kenneth and Josh."

Mac nodded.

MACGYVERxLAB

Pete stopped by the security desk. This time it was Allan and Keith.

"Hey Pete, back here again? Which of our guys have messed up this time?"

"Jack…" Pete chuckled, "And a guy from a different company…"

"Oh, one of the twins?" Allan asked, "Isn't that who he teamed up with?"

Pete shrugged, "I don't know… Jack just mentioned a friend with a busted up knee…"

"I bet it's one of the twins…" Keith nodded, "Met the other one when I was coming on shift."

Pete let out a soft chuckle, "Man, I leave home for a few days. Kinda relieved to get away from the two whirlwinds at home. Fly to LA to take care of one of my former colleagues, who has a twin. And then I figure out that the other guy I might be treating also has a twin. Seems like twins are the bane of my existence…"

"Yeah, that's right… You have twins back home too… How's Randy and Gary?" Keith asked, pouring up a cup of coffee.

"Oh, they're active…" Pete chuckled, "Their latest craze is skating, curtesy one of their 'uncles'…"

"One of the old teammates?"

Pete nodded, "Yeah… Guess they're bad influence…"

Keith laughed as he handed Pete the coffee.

MACGYVERxLAB

Ten minutes later Pete was headed towards the infirmary floor to have a chat with his patients.

 **Okay, another chapter for this down. Hope I didn't bore you all to death.**

 **Okay. Have a nice day!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, haha! Thanks for the comments and stuff!**

"Torn rotator cuff…" Pete announced as he stepped away from the monitor. "Complete tear of the supraspinatus muscle… Partial tear of all the other ones."

"Guess this means surgery…"

"You're right." Pete nodded, "But I think we'll be able to deal with it arthroscopically. Which will make your recovery a bit easier."

"Sounds good…"

Pete nodded, "Now, don't get me wrong, you'll be in all sorts of pain even with the arthroscopic surgery."

"Already guessed so…"

Pete smirked, "OR we could always perform an amputation at the C3…"

"Pete, that one is getting old. I don't even think I would fall for it if I was drunk outta my mind!"

"Yeah… Guess I should find something new to trick you with…" Pete chuckled.

Jack nodded, then he winced as Pete manipulated his shoulder.

"Sorry…" Pete mumbled as he continued to move Jack's arm to test out his shoulder.

"Hey, one request…" Jack bit out through gritted teeth.

"What?"

"Don't pull that joke with the other guy…" Jack looked over at Pete, "The kid might be shaken up enough as it is…"

Pete nodded, "Okay boss… I'll behave…"

"Thanks…" Jack nodded.

 **MACGYVERxLAB**

"Come in…" Alex answered at the knock on the door, seconds later a guy in a doctor's uniform walked in. He looked like he was of Mediterranean descent, and maybe a little shy of 40 years old. Somewhere between 34 and 42 anyway.

"Hey, I'm Peter Santorro. I'm the doctor Jack probably mentioned. Just call me Pete." The doctor, Pete, introduced himself with a friendly smile.

Kim watched his brother for a couple long seconds, smirking.

"Hey…" Pete repeated, "You with me soldier?"

Since his brother still didn't respond, Kim chose to answer for him. "Guess he zoned out a bit, you'll have to excuse him. Long week, I guess…"

"And I suppose you are the twin…"

Kim nodded, "Yep… I've been stuck with that guy for all my life…"

Pete chuckled. "Is he usually this quiet?"

Kim shook his head, "No, usually I have to threaten to knock him out to get him to shut up. Just give him a minute or so, I'm pretty sure he just had to restart his brain. Lord knows it's been collecting dust the last 20 something years…"

Pete laughed, and Kim looked over at Alex once again.

"Well, USUALLY it helps to make fun of him…" Kim sighed, "Usually…"

Pete nodded, "Yeah, my boys are starting to find special ways to push each other's buttons too… I figure the two of you must have that down to an art by now…"

"Your boys…?"

"Yeah, twins… They turned nine a couple of months ago." Pete grinned proudly.

"That's cute…" Kim grinned as he picked up a ballpoint pen and weighed it in his right hand. Looking up at Pete he winked and announced "Watch this…" right before he threw it at his brother.

"What the f-? Kim!" Alex snarled and snapped his head in Kim's direction.

"You took a little trip into some other dimension, I believe…"

"What?"

"You zoned out dude…" Kim clarified.

Blushing, Alex muttered something about 'San Francisco', and Kim could not keep from laughing. Not even when Alex shot him a warning glare.

"Okay, now that you're back with us again," Pete interrupted, "Maybe I could take a look at that knee of yours. I've looked at the scans and pictures of it, and surgery is necessary. But I think it would be practical to test your knee a little."

Alex managed to nod, but his words were lost in fear of making an even bigger fool of himself.

"Okay, promise this will just hurt a lot…" Pete winked, and the tall brunet in the bed reddened.

MACGYVERxLAB

Kim clasped his right hand over his mouth in an attempt to keep quiet, and avoid laughing. Which was the hardest task of the whole week.

'San Francisco' wasn't just a city in California. It was so much more.  
A busy tourist destination. The location of Alcatraz Island. The place with the world famous Cable Cars, and the Golden Gate Bridge. The famous streets which had been portrayed in many fast paced action movie car chases. Lots of great sea food (and other sorts of food.) The fifth place Alex and Kim had been on a mission (back when they actually kept count…)  
And… Oh yeah… It was famous for it's LGBTQ community.

Kim enjoyed this a little too much. Seeing his twin brother actually struggle to find his words was a seldom treat. Seeing his brother blush on top of all that? Perfect.

MACGYVERxLAB

Okay, _that wink_ , that wink was unnecessary. It was hard enough to keep a straight face without that wink.

Alex swallowed hard and tried to nod. He could feel the heat creeping up his cheeks. Dammit, he was blushing. He shouldn't be blushing in front of this man. Nope. Bad timing.

But the deep brown eyes and the on-point black hair, with a side order of stubbles? Dammit! He was just as weak for that as he was for that as he was for girls with full lips, beach hair and tattoos.

"It was the right one? Right?"

Alex nodded, he couldn't do anything else than that right now. He did not trust his voice, there was too great of a risk that his voice would be an octave too high. Best not to use it.

The doctor, Pete, unlocked the wheels on the bed and rolled the bed away from the wall. "Best for both of us if I don't have to stretch over you to check out your right leg…"

Alex nodded again, clearing his voice he dared uttering a short agreement.

Pete smiled, and Alex was glad he wasn't attached to some sort of heart rate monitor, that would have given him away.

Alex helped remove the blanket from where it was covering his leg, then he folded his hands over the now bunched up blanket now covering his private area. At least it felt a little bit reassuring knowing that no _situation_ would be detected.

"Let's unstrap this brace… I won't be able to check it out with all that hiding it." The handsome doctor said with his hands hovering above one of the buckles.

Alex nodded, and Pete started undoing the brace.

MACGYVERxLAB

"Aw, that looks bad…" Pete grimaced as he got the first real look at the injured knee, "Must be pretty painful, huh?"

Alex nodded.

"You're not much of a talker today, are you?"

That comment made Kim laugh, loudly. "I know it probably sounds like a lie to you, but I am honest when I say that I normally I have to make threats to shut him up."

Pete chuckled, "Maybe it's the pain then…"

"I doubt it…" Kim chuckled, earning himself a glare from Alex.

"Yeah. Pain…" Alex nodded, staring hard at Kim while he answered.

Pete nodded and went on prodding at the exposed, heavily bruised knee. He stopped when the young man growled. "That was worse?"

"Hit a sore spot…" Alex nodded, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Sorry for that…" Pete winked again, "Told you it was gonna be painful."

Alex sucked in a sharp breath and nodded, "Guess you did…"

"And, you're talking. For a minute there I was afraid I had met a mute patient. –It's hard to do an exam when your victim isn't answering your questions…"

"Victim?" Alex almost laughed, his ability to speak was slowly coming back to him.

Pete nodded, "I can bet you that will be what you're feeling like in about a minute and a half…"

"You've got something gruesome planned for me doc?" Alex inquired.

"Yeah. I'm gonna test how your knee moves, trust me THAT won't be comfortable."

Alex nodded and started preparing himself for the pain to come.

MACGYVERxLAB

Kim grimaced at the sound his brother tried to silence. He knew it had to be bad for him to even flinch, for him to be a quarter inch away from screaming? Bad.

What he really wanted to do, was to knock the doctor out for causing his twin that much pain. His fingers were itching for it. He felt like he needed it. Needed to protect Alex.

He sat up a little straighter, leaned forward.

"Okay, that's one of the worse ones I've seen… We will let this rest here." the doctor frowned and placed his brother's leg back on top of the pillows.

Kim relaxed and sat back, knowing that his brother wouldn't be brought through more pain right now.

"As you probably already know, you need surgery to reconstruct your knee. You've torn all the major ligaments, ACL, PCL, MCL and LCL. And as an added bonus, you have a grade 3 tear of your Sartorius muscle at the height of your knee, as well as your patella tendon."

"That's bad, right?" Kim joined in, looking up at the doctor.

"It's not good…" Pete nodded, "A torn off muscle or tendon is no joke. And it hurts like hell."

Kim nodded.

"Now, there is a few ways we could repair your knee. We could use grafts from your own body, I can still take a graft from your hamstring muscles, and I can take grafts from your other leg too. But that will…"

"-That will make my other leg hurt too…" Alex nodded, "But my body is less likely to reject those grafts than ones from cadavers."

Pete nodded, "Yeah, you've been through this before. I saw that in your file."

Alex nodded, "Never this bad, but yeah…"

Kim almost chuckled, his brother was a weird one. He often _played_ dumb, to the extent that Kim almost believed it himself. But then he could turn around and tell you exactly how a complicated machine was built and how it worked, or the chemical build up of C4. He also knew enough about anatomy to discuss it with great surgeons without sounding like someone who had just looked it up on Wikipedia five minutes ago. But he usually hid all that until it was necessary to use all that information. Which was weird, because science and facts seemed to be his comfort area.

"I take it I don't need to walk you through all the pros and cons of the different options…" Pete shrugged, "But would you like me to do it anyway?"

"No… Heard it all before." Alex smiled shyly.

"Would you like me to perform the surgery?"

Alex nodded, "Yeah, the way Jack spoke of you I already had my mind made up about that…"

Pete chuckled, "So he didn't scare you?"

Alex shook his head.

"Okay, that's good." Pete smiled, "Even though it results in a more invasive surgery and more pain, I would like to recommend taking grafts from the uninjured leg and using them to reconstruct your injured knee."

"Just do what you think is best doc…" Alex nodded.

"Okay, I'll schedule the surgery for tomorrow then. Don't eat or drink anything after midnight."

"Sir, yes sir…"

MACGYVERxLAB

After Pete left the room, Kim looked at Alex. "Bro, you're pathetic!"

"What?"

"You had ten whole minutes of being a braindead fish!" Kim chuckled, "And the thing that gets your tongue going is MEDICAL STUFF!"

Alex visibly swallowed, "So?"

"You could have flirted with him, that would have been less obvious I think!"

Alex shook his head, "Nah, I couldn't do that…"

"But you were interested? Or am I failing at detecting your 'type' again?"

"Hell yeah… He was fine!" Alex nodded, "But, he had a tan line from a wedding band."

Kim's eyebrows shot up at that comment. "He did…?"

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure he only had it off because he was working. My guess is that it was hanging from that necklace he wore. The one that looked like it would be holding a set of dog-tags…"

Kim laughed, "You can't even hide that agent mind of yours for a second when we're alone, huh?"

"Says the guy who's always playing mind games, thinking about hostage situations and how to solve them?"

Kim chuckled, "Okay, you get a point for that one. But to my defense, me thinking through scenarios like that might actually end up saving our bacon sometime in the future…"

"Yeah, and me not flirting with a guy that IS married and about to cut my freaking leg open might be beneficial for MY health."

"Because of the 'married' thing or because of the 'cutting your leg open' thing?"

Alex shrugged, "Haven't figured that one out yet…"

"I'm pretty sure he understood you had a thing for him…" Kim teased.

"You know what? Screw you!" Alex shook his head, "You're a horrible little brother."

"-Twin. You're only seven minutes older…"

"You're technically still my little brother." Alex chuckled, "And I don't think he realized…"

"He noticed. No chance he didn't."

 **Okay. MACGYVER IS BACK ON TONIGHT! I CAN'T WAIT! (Also pretty ready for Hawaii Five 0)**

 **(And yeah, I know this chapter was messy. It wouldn't cooperate.)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello friends! Hope you're doing well!**

"So, Pete…" Mac nodded as he met Pete outside Alex's room, "How bad is he?"

Pete shrugged, "Well, he won't end up with a bunch of leftover right shoes just yet."

"Your way of saying he'll keep his leg?"

Pete nodded, "He's got a long road ahead of him, recovery wise. But it's likely that he'll end up having a fully functional knee again."

"You think so?" Mac tilted his head, "Jack described it as some of the nastiest he could remember ever seeing…"

"Yeah, it was a nasty injury." Pete nodded, "And there's not much keeping that knee together right now. But I've seen people with even worse injuries make a full recovery."

"You have?"

"Yeah," Pete nodded again, "One of them actually had his two-year knee-anniversary a couple of days ago. I got a text that he had signed up for the Boston Marathon, the full length. He said he was hoping to do it in 2 hours and 40 minutes, but that he would be scream of joy even if he passed the finish line after more than 3 hours too. He qualified for the marathon with a time of 3:02:41, but he said he was a lot better now than at the time he qualified."

"That's impressive, and even more impressive when you know the guy had a knee that looked worse than Alex's only two years ago."

Pete nodded, "By the way, how much do you know about those two guys?"

"We've spent some time together, both on and off missions…"

Pete nodded again, then he looked slightly towards Mac's direction, "Is Alex usually quiet or chatty?"

Mac shrugged, "Usually chatty, why?"

"Kim said he usually was, but Alex sure didn't live up to that hype when I was in there."

Mac laughed, "Maybe he's got a crush on you?"

Pete chuckled, "Seriously? On me?"

"Might happen." Mac shrugged, "I mean, once we were out drinking together he switched between flirting with Riley and Bozer…"

"OH, so he's…" Pete looked at Mac, "He's bi?"

Mac shrugged, "I guess, I can't remember either of them confirming or denying it…"

"Well, in that case I'll take it as a compliment. But I have to say he's got bad taste if he falls for me…" Pete chuckled, "I would get it if he fell for Duncan or Cooper if he ever met them, well at least Cooper… Dunc's got that whole thing going on with his face, you know…"

"The scar?"

"Yeah, the scar…" Pete nodded and frowned, "But let's both admit that before that scar got there they were both more generally handsome than me…"

Mac shrugged, "Guess that's all about personal preference… But if you didn't notice, the last time the six of us all went out together, YOU were the one that had ladies hanging all over you…"

Pete smirked, "Yeah, that's true… But we were also sitting down for the most time, we were basically all the same height then…"

"Come on, that's bullshit." Mac shook his head, "And I'm pretty sure it works just the same the other way around too. I mean, just like some guys like short girls, other likes tall girls, and for most it doesn't really matter."

Pete chuckled, then he nodded. "You're probably right about that."

"And, you're not _that_ short. You're just shorter than the rest of the squad, but you don't stick out as short in the general population."

"Aw, thanks man…" Pete answered in mock gratitude, "I needed that boost of confidence…"

"Just stating facts, old man…"

"Hey, we talked about this. Don't call me old man, I'm nowhere near Jack and Box's age, therefore I'm not an old man."

"You sure? If you're not that old yet, race me to the end of the hallway then…" Mac winked challenging.

"Hey, I'm wearing the wrong leg, okay?" Pete stopped and pulled his pant leg up a little bit, showing the metal rod, "This one is close to useless when it comes to running, but you probably knew that already, right?"

Mac chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, but you do know we wouldn't actually be running, right?"

Pete stopped and gave Mac a onceover. His eyes settling on the black boot wrapped around his leg. "Actually, I forgot about that… Sure, we can race…"

Mac shook his head, "Nah… I was just kidding, it's already throbbing bad enough…"

"Okay, then you should let it rest. Find some crutches or even a wheelchair…" Pete sighed and gave Mac a look of slight concern. If Jack was his helicopter parent, the rest of the Delta guys were his protective older brothers.

"It's fine. I'll just take something to calm it down once I get home, and I'll be a good little boy and keep it elevated."

"You better…" Pete folded his arms across his chest, "…Or I'll forcibly make you rest and take some time off that leg of yours."

"Forcibly make me rest…" Mac chuckled, "Contradicting."

"You know what I mean…" Pete chuckled too, then he turned straight around and his serious Delta Operator face made a guest appearance, "And you also know I'm serious."

Mac nodded, "I'll spend the evening on the couch. I promise. I'll even throw in a few pillows to keep my leg elevated with."

"Good." Pete grinned, "Other than being a good patient tonight, any plans?"

Mac shrugged, "Kinda half-planned that Riley was coming over to watch a movie or something."

"Riley, like Jack's other 'basically-his' kid?"

"That's what you guys reference me as now?"

"Hey, it's only the truth…" Pete shrugged, "But it's her, right?"

Mac nodded, "Yeah, it's her."

"How is she?" Pete asked as he looked at Mac, "Doing well?"

Mac blushed, honest to God blushed.

"Mac?" Pete tried not to laugh, he wasn't all that successful, "Something you want to tell me little brother?"

Mac put up a warning finger, but couldn't help laughing himself.

"Mac, you're blushing. Come on, give me some gossip."

"Okay, but… Jack doesn't get to know this yet, deal?"

"Deal."

"It's VERY new." Mac swallowed and looked up at the ceiling as if it was a safe place to hang his eyes, "Like, literally started a few days ago officially…"

Pete nodded, "Okay, tell me more…"

"Not all that much more to tell really, turns out we've both had a crush on each other ever since we met." Mac shrugged, "And she's a lot braver than I am when it comes to all that relationship sort of stuff, so… Well, she basically cornered me about it."

Pete laughed, "Okay, so Jack's not getting to know this yet?"

"No, better let a week or so pass by before he gets to know it…" Mac shrugged, "You know how he gets…"

"Yeah, guess you're right." Pete shrugged, "So, you want me to stay away from the living room tonight? I could probably crash at Jack's place instead…"

"Nah… I already have a roommate, don't you think we would have stayed at Riley's place if we needed privacy?"

Chuckling Pete nodded, "Guess you've got a point there…"

Mac nodded as well.

"Okay, I've got a few more things to do here before I head back to your place. But you should definitely rest that ankle leg of yours, or I WILL rat on you to Jack. About the leg I mean."

Mac nodded, "Okay, I'm going. You're getting back to the house by yourself?"

Pete nodded, "Rented a car at LAX, I'm good."

"Okay, I'll see you when you get home. You remember where it's at?"

Pete nodded, "Of course. Now go, before I decide to carry you to the closest wheelchair wherever that might be…"

"Okay, okay…" Mac chuckled, "Just call if you have any problems finding my place."

"I won't…" Pete chuckled, "Now go…"

"Okay."

 **Okay, managed to write another chapter for this one. And it was about damn time…**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello darlings, it's valentines day.  
And therefore it is Alex and Kim's birthday. Better write something then. (And try to post it before the end of Feb.14** **th** **.)**

Cutting open that knee felt like opening a can of worms. The scans had looked bad, but he still hadn't expected the old scar tissues to look this bad on such a young man. Nor had he expected the tear of the patella tendon and the Sartorius muscle to be as frayed.

"This kid's just a few steps away from a total knee replacement…" Pete frowned as he looked up at one of the other doctors on his team, Eugene. "Without these new injuries, this thing's gotta hurt constantly…"

"Just look at the wear on the backside of this patella…" Eugene West noted as he lifted the kneecap using forceps. "A such young knee shouldn't look this bad…"

"No. It shouldn't…" Pete nodded, "We patch him up. As best as we can. And then when he's awake, I can ask if he would like a knee replacement soon. It's not sure he'll go for that surgery yet. I've known a few knuckleheads in my time…"

"One of them being our very own Jack Dalton?"

"Yeah, one of them." Pete nodded, "Still don't understand how someone put themselves through this though…"

Dr. West nodded, "I'm just grateful that this is not my leg. Can you imagine all that pain?"

Pete sighed and stared at Eugene with a glare that simply asked 'how dense are you?' before he looked down at his prosthetic. "You're asking the wrong man…"

"Shit, sorry. Forgot." Eugene West grimaced behind his mask.

"Don't worry, it's usually not that bad anymore. But when I got injured in the first place, oh man…"

"Can I get the graft for the PCL?" Pete requested as he looked over at one of the nurses that had prepared the graft for him.

MACGYVERxLAB

"How do you think it's going?" Kim asked as he tapped his right hand on his thigh, he never really got used to this part of the job. When you're helplessly sidelined and unable to make a difference for someone. And it was even worse when it was your brother you couldn't help.

"It's going just fine…" Jack drawled. He stopped to inhale slowly and reposition the ice bag that was draped over his shoulder. "Pete's a great doctor."

Mac nodded to confirm it.

"Yeah, but…" Kim shook his head a little bit, "I'm just worried. I mean, how many times can a knee be wrecked before it can't be fixed again?"

Mac shrugged, "Depends on the injury, and genes I guess. We're all different when it comes to how fast and well we heal. Age also makes a difference."

"I don't think Thing 2 needed a lesson…" Jack shot in, "He's a smart kid. You just need someone to tell you it'll be alright huh?"

Letting out a shy laugh, Kim nodded. "Sure as hell don't mind you just telling me that…"

"See?" Jack nodded towards Mac while he gestured to Kim, then he looked back at Kim, "It'll be alright kid, your brother will be fine. He's just gonna have to take it easy for some time."

"Alex? Taking it easy?" Kim chuckled, "I'm still waiting for that to actually happen."

Jack smirked.

"How about you?" Kim changed the subject, "How are you feeling about the surgery you'll have later?"

Jack looked down at his shoulder and frowned. "I'm not looking forward to it. But I'm looking forward to being done with it…"

"Makes sense…" Kim nodded, "How is the pain now? Is that bag helping?"

"It's dulling it down…" Jack tilted his head to look at the cold pack.

"And the pain level…?"

"About a 4…" Jack answered before his lips formed a thin line over his teeth.

"So…" Kim looked at Mac, "How do I read that number? Do I double it or do you have some crazy kind of algorithm to put it through?"

"Doubling it will work…" Mac chuckled and nodded.

"Okay, so 8-ish…" Kim smirked and looked over at Jack, who didn't protest.

The door to the room opened, and Riley walked in carrying a tray of coffees, she handed a cup to Kim, one to Mac and took one herself. Then she looked apologetically towards Jack and shrugged slightly. "Sorry, you can't have any before your surgery…"

Jack nodded, "Yeah, I know…"

MACGYVERxLAB

"That took a lot more time than expected…" Eugene said as he helped Pete close up the last of the incisions.

Pete nodded, "Kid's gonna be in a lot of pain the next few weeks. We'll put him in a hinged knee brace, that will allow him to slowly start his exercises."

"Locked in extension?"

"Yeah, of course." Pete nodded as he placed another suture, "After about two weeks we'll let him unlock it a few times a day to go through simple exercises to avoid that he loses all of his flexion, but he's not allowed to work active extension before at least 6 weeks have passed. But, given that his knee suffered extensive trauma, I would like to maybe postpone that a little bit. Have him come in for a consult before you allow him to do active extension."

Eugene nodded.

"It might be that his leg is ready for it by then, but given all the different injuries, his recovery time might pack up on itself…"

Eugene nodded again, "Hey, Pete…?"

"Yeah…?"

"Do you think this guy knows how bad his knee really is?"

Piercing blue eyes met Pete's brown ones for a second, Pete nodded.

"He probably does…"

"But why doesn't he do something about it? Why haven't he quit? Or even though it could be considered unreasonable early, why haven't he had a full knee replacement? Why go through all this pain?"

Pete shrugged, "I'm not a mind reader, and I'm not a shrink, but I guess he's just not done yet."

"Done? The kid is going to lose his job due to stupidity if he keeps on going like this!"

"We don't know that." Pete pulled on his shoulders before he secured another stitch, "For all we know he won't have a job if he goes through with the replacement. Maybe that's the final straw…?"

"It's stupid."

"I can't argue with you there." Pete sighed, "I'll talk to him tomorrow, ask him about his thoughts on getting a full knee replacement in the future."

Eugene nodded.

"Okay, last stitch is in. We're done here."

"Over to the next one…"

"Yeah, but lunch first." Pete said as he started placing bandages over the incisions. "I'm hungry, and it's high time for some lunch."

 **Okay, hope you had fun. I'll try to keep this going slowly but steadily.**


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